The Yosemite Experience - Your Personal Journal

The Yosemite Experience - Your Personal Journal


photography by Christine White LobergPaperback
6 x 9 inches

Yosemite National Park is an American national park in Northern California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an area of 1,169 sq mi and sits in four counties: centered in Tuolumne and Mariposa, extending north and east to Mono and south to Madera County. Designated a World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, giant sequoia groves, lakes, mountains, meadows, glaciers, and biological diversity. Almost 95% of the park is designated wilderness.

Yosemite is one of the largest and least fragmented habitat blocks in the Sierra Nevada, and the park supports a diversity of plants and animals. The park has an elevation range from 2,127 to 13,114 feet (648 to 3,997 m) and contains five major vegetation zones: chaparral and oak woodland, lower montane forest, upper montane forest, subalpine zone, and alpine. Of California's 7,000 plant species, approximately 50% occur in the Sierra Nevada and more than 20% are within Yosemite. The park contains suitable habitat for more than 160 rare plants, with rare local geologic formations and unique soils characterizing the restricted ranges many of these plants occupy.

The geology of the Yosemite area is characterized by granitic rocks and remnants of older rock. About 10 million years ago, the Sierra Nevada was uplifted and then tilted to form its relatively gentle western slopes and the more dramatic eastern slopes. The uplift increased the steepness of stream and river beds, resulting in the formation of deep, narrow canyons. About one million years ago, snow and ice accumulated, forming glaciers at the higher alpine meadows that moved down the river valleys. Ice thickness in Yosemite Valley may have reached 4,000 feet (1,200 m) during the early glacial episode. The downslope movement of the ice masses cut and sculpted the U-shaped valley that attracts so many visitors to its scenic vistas today.

Yosemite was central to the development of the national park idea. Galen Clark and others lobbied to protect Yosemite Valley from development, ultimately leading to President Abraham Lincoln's signing the Yosemite Grant in 1864. John Muir led a successful movement to have Congress establish a larger national park by 1890, one which encompassed the valley and its surrounding mountains and forests, paving the way for the National Park System. Yosemite now draws about four million visitors each year, and most visitors spend the majority of their time in the seven square miles (18 km2) of Yosemite Valley. The park set a visitation record in 2016, surpassing five million visitors for the first time in its history.---------------------------
A native Californian, Christine White Loberg, developed a love for photography at age 13, when asked to photograph her dad as Santa Claus for one of the local malls. After high school she took photography classes at Cal State Fullerton to expand her technical skills, attended Brooks Photography College and took additional classes from the Main Photography School which is sponsored by Kodak.

Christine has worked in photography stores, photo studios and photo labs to increase her photography knowledge. Developing a love for nature, she became involved with The Sierra Club, making frequent visits to Yosemite. It was during one of these visits that she met Ansel Adams, and then in 1985 decided to accept a job working as a lab technician in Yosemite Valley. Christine is our most senior staff photographer having worked for The Ansel Adams Gallery for many years while also working as a seasonal Ranger for the interpretive division in Yosemite National Park.

Christine has also worked and taught for The Yosemite Conservancy, Kodak Corporation, Yosemite Park and Curry Co., The Sierra Club, Vision Academy of the Arts, YMCA, Yosemite High School, Road Scholar, and Parks in Focus. Having raised her sons in Yosemite, she instilled in them a love of nature and a zeal to protect it for the next generation.Tremendously passionate about photography and nature, Christine has made it her mission and life-long goal to inspire and teach the next generation of nature photographers.